Crystal Stilts UK tour takes in Glasgow date

The noise-pop group's JB Townshend talks to us ahead of their show at the Arches.

‘It’s the morning, I’m at home in Brooklyn,’ informs JB Townsend, guitarist in ethereal noisemongers Crystal Stilts, ‘just watching a movie about a giant squid.’ Ah, the life of the between-albums alternative musician. Townsend’s band’s debut album Alight of Night was released in 2008 and it proved to be a slow-burn success, bringing him, co-founder Brad Hargett and the rest of the group acclaim in all the right places as spiritual heirs to the spaced-out dream pop sound of The Jesus and Mary Chain, Spacemen 3 and Cocteau Twins.

Coming up in April, then, will be the quintet’s second record In Love With Oblivion. ‘We started it about a year ago, and recorded it pretty much live here in Brooklyn at a friend’s house,’ says Townsend, who produced the album with mixing help from a friend named Gary Olsen. ‘It’s similar in style to the first record, although then I played a lot of the instruments myself and now it’s more of a collaboration, so I guess the songs are a little more concentrated and less spacey. The one that stands out for me is the last one, ‘Prometheus at Large’, which is kind of Velvet Underground-sounding. We did it quickly at the last minute, so it was really spontaneous and fun.’

For a group who released their first album five years after they formed, they’re picking up the pace. Might we have to wait three years for the next album? ‘We actually have a lot of songs written already from the last session,’ Townsend says, ‘we’re definitely getting more prolific as we go on.’

Arches, Glasgow, Sunday 27 March. In Love with Oblivion will be released on Mon 11 Apr on Fortuna Pop.